Keaton Simons’ new single entitled “If I Hadn’t Forgotten” features American Idol Season 9 finalist Didi Benami. It is now available to the public via iTunes and Amazon as a digital download.

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Keaton Simons is a thirty-something, multi-talented singer songwriter, and musician who has albums and EPs attached to his credential along with a degree in Ethnomusicology.

His musicality is always spot on and his voice soulful and bluesy. This was clear on the song “If I hadn’t forgotten” originally released as a single.

The song itself on first listen renders a feeling that you might have heard it before from somewhere. In its simplicity and timelessness, it could very well be placed in a movie soundtrack or perhaps a TV show.

And placed it was! ABC’s hit medical drama series “Private Practice” picked it up and put the song front and center in its November 3rd episode (EP506) entitled “If I Hadn’t Forgotten.” Not only is the episode the same as the track title, the main character Dr. Addison Montgomery (Kate Walsh) sings a few lines of the song!

“If I Hadn’t Forgotten” took another turn this week with a special release of a duet version. Lending the other half of this now two-tone harmony is the wistful, pulsing voice of Didi Benami.

Simons and Benami are long time friends and Didi has appeared in a number of Keaton Simons shows in Los Angeles.

While the tune could be carried fine on its own solo, we could see why Benami’s voice is the missing piece needed to perfect this song. Says producer and owner of Revolver Recordings (where the song was mixed and recorded), Mikal Blue:

“it was suggested that Didi could come and do a duet on one of (the) songs. I thought it was a great idea but I’ve no idea how amazing it was gonna sound. As soon as it got Didi’s voice into this track, the whole track took on a new vibe; it was beautiful hearing them both.”

In a post from Official American Idol site about the song release, Benami affirms:

“I’m very happy and excited about it. It’s been a long time in the works for me to get something out there, and I think the wait brought us to just the right song at just the right moment.”

Behind the scenes look:

Whether there was conscious effort to bring in Didi Benami to ‘complete’ the track, the result is sublime and universally appealing. The give and take, the push and pull, the symbiosis brought the song into a whole new tier.

Benami’s voice hooks you in, inviting you to her world as she sings about the lost love. There is longing and yearning as she profess: “And I don’t know what you’ve been dreamin’ of, if your heart is haunted by our love, and I don’t know if you’ve tried movin’ on, But I can’t get past the way we left off…” leading into the chorus blending in tastefully with Simons’ crisp vocals:

If I knew now What I knew then If I hadn’t forgotten What we meant If I’d held on Through the hard times If I’d done what I needed to make things right I’d know love before I lost it If I hadn’t forgotten

Where the two draws the connection to the song, Benami might have sentimental attachment to it from the beginning as revealed on the behind the scenes video: “When I first heard the song, I felt like it was the last relationship that I was in, and it just brought me back… to what I could have done differently… It’s a message of hope for those of us that overthink everything and for those of us that don’t…”

The track is Benami’s debut release since going on a nationwide American Idol tour in 2010. She was in New York City two months ago at the Rockwood Music Hall for an intimate showcase of what she’s been working on as far as her music goes. She is off to the Bahamas for a charity concert and dinner weekend on November 11, and she’s chosen to benefit St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (www.stjude.org/musicgives).

We wish both of these artists much success in their respective careers and we surely won’t mind another collaboration in the offing.